Why Zynga Failed

http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/05/more-competitors-smarter-gamers-expensive-ads-less-virality-mobile/

Much like music in the 70's and 80's, and motion pictures in the 90's, video games became a so-called blockbuster business in the 00's. What that term dictates is that a small number of massive successes (albeit succeeses that are VERY costly to produce and market) pays for all the losers that don't make money.

And Zynga tapped into this blockbuster mentality with titles such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars, games so immesely successful that they became pop culture touchstones, not just wildly profitable video games. And concurrent with the rise of Zynga, we saw the rise of Facebook. Zynga would not be Zynga without the platform and reach of Facebook, but Zynga was also the initial fuel of profit for Facebook.

This article addresses other factors in Zynga's decline, such as not being able to buy cheap clicks on Facebook anymore and Facebook tiring of Zynga "spam" to its users. But I propose a simpler reason for Zynga's move back to mere mortal status: the problem with a blockbuster business is that, well, you have to keep delivering blockbusters. And that's not easy to do. It was only a matter of time for Zynga to suffer a fall simply because it would be hard to keep batting .1000 with its games.